The Anatomy Of Muscle Building - Pt. 1

Strength training isn’t a mindless jock activity. Athletes, trainers, bodybuilders and even regular gym-goers need to understand exactly how the muscles in their body function, so that they can work them properly to make them stronger and bigger. Each muscle serves a different purpose and the aim of exercising shouldn’t simply be to make them aesthetically-pleasing but to make sure each and every muscle in your body is strong.

The muscles of your body which you can work out can broadly be divided into two categories – upper body and lower body muscles. In the upper body muscles you have shoulder (deltoids and traps), back (lats, middle back and lower back), arms (biceps, triceps and forearms), chest (major and minor pectoralis) and abdomen muscles. In the lower body muscles you’ve glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves.

Now each of these muscles have separate isolation exercises to target that particular muscle and compound exercises which targets more than one muscle group and joint. We will first start off explaining what each muscle group does for the human body:

Dumbbell shoulder press

Dumbbell Shoulder PressHolding a dumbbell in each hand, sit on a military press bench or utility bench with back support. Place the dumbbells upright on top of your thighs. Raise the dumbbells to shoulder height one at a time, using your thighs to help propel them into position. Be sure to rotate your wrists so that the palms of your hands are facing forward. This is your starting position. Exhale as you push the dumbbells upward until they almost touch at the top. After a brief pause at the top, inhale as you slowly lower the weights to the starting position.

The back muscles can be divided into traps, middle back (rhomboids), lats and lower back.

back musclesTraps – Now the traps or trapezius muscle connects the deltoids to the back which supports the weight of your arm and retracts and rotates the (scapulae) shoulder blades.

Middle back (Rhomboids) – The rhomboids helps you squeeze the shoulder blades together and provide stability to the shoulder.

Lats (Latissimus dorsi muscle) – The lats help you pull your arm down and back and keep your elbow close.

Lower back – The lower back muscles are necessary to stabilise your spine and part of the core muscles.